


Grieving

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [231]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Coping, Gen, Grieving, Healing, Immediately Post Battle of Hogwarts, all canon deaths mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8184022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: “It’s really over,” Ginny says by way of greeting, and Hermione’s heard that more than once today. It’s going to become something people say for some time to come, she thinks. A way of confirming that this is all real.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a piece I wrote for Tumblr.
> 
> Warnings: This is immediately post Battle of Hogwarts, all canon deaths happened, several are mentioned.

When the three of them make it back to the Great Hall the celebration pervading the castle turns somber. These are the people deeply, immediately entrenched in what today has cost them.

They move towards the Weasleys, Harry still under the invisibility cloak lest he get mobbed. George latches onto Ron, and Harry quietly says something to Mrs. Weasley. Hermione is the one who goes to Ginny, sitting off to the side, stunned.

“It’s really over,” Ginny says by way of greeting, and Hermione’s heard that more than once today. It’s going to become something people say for some time to come, she thinks. A way of confirming that this is all real.

Ginny stares at her brother as she says it, Fred lying dead, half-obscured by their mother who refuses to leave his side, and Hermione thinks that Ginny, the Weasleys, none of them will need verbal reminders that this happened. They have all the brutal proof they need. Hermione absently touches the scars on her arm, looks around the room at the dead and the grieving.

Still. At least it’s a verbal reminder that it happened for a reason, that there was purpose and they won. 

“Yes,” Hermione agrees. “It’s done.”

Ginny starts to shake then, and Hermione worries she’s crying–she’s not very good with tears, but she supposes now is the time above all others to learn–but then she realizes that Ginny is giving a very shaky, very broken, laugh. Others around them look up and stare, but Hermione glares them down. 

“I–I can’t believe…” she begins, eyes watering from the force of the feelings. “It’s been…it’s always been…and now it’s…and Remus, and Tonks…and _Fred.”_

Her voice utterly breaks on the last word, and now the tears do come. Hermione wraps an arm around her friend, tugging her close, letting Ginny cry into her ripped, stained, dirty clothes. She lets her own tears fall, lost in Ginny’s hair somewhere. Fred and George were always so _there,_ as indisputable, immovable as anything, and it is incomprehensible that something has changed that. But for Ginny, who was always so close to the twins…

Hermione gives Ginny a squeeze and lets her cry.

She doesn’t cry very long, or even very loud, just a short release of tears and grief. Hermione wishes she could give her more, but she supposes they’re all at that point where there is very little to do. Time.

She wants to tell Ginny that she was great today, that she saw her out there, comforting and rescuing, fighting and helping. That Ginny standing against Bellatrix was incredibly brave, that Ginny has been a force to contend with through all this.

But something tells Hermione that’s not the comfort she needs. Later there will be time for remembering how great they were, what they did, how they won this war.

But now is for grieving. And it is for family. Just meters away, the Weasleys and Harry suddenly feel too far.

Hermione stands, tugging Ginny with her. “Come on,” she says, looking at her friend, taller than her now, and Hermione doesn’t know when that happened.

Ginny’s face is splotchy but her eyes are dry again, and she nods, so, arms around each other, the two of them walk back over to their family.


End file.
